


On days like this

by ParadiseFalls03



Series: Green, Red and other shades of youth [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Established Relationship, Grief, Memories, Multi, Triggers, remembering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 15:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20854190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadiseFalls03/pseuds/ParadiseFalls03
Summary: It’s on days like today that Draco remembers the war.





	On days like this

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
This is an continuation of my other fiction “Are you scared, too?”, but they can be read separately (just the characters are the ones from that fictions but it makes sense on it’s own).
> 
> Thank you to the lovely Potter#4216 (Avreate) for beta-ing this :)
> 
> Thanks for reading 🙃

It’s midday, spring slowly warming its way into summer. The sky is a violent hue of blue, one you don’t often see in Scotland. He feels his cheeks already reddening, the bridge of his nose manifesting the signs of an early sunburn. Later, Harry would tell him that he complains too much, but in his heart he knows today it’s perfect. It’s one of those days in which nature shows off it’s beauty, giving all it has. It rained in the morning, and the air is gently chilled. Even the grass in their flourishing garden seems to be sparkling.

It’s in these days, these perfect days in which everything is beautiful and nothing feels like it could go wrong, that Draco remembers. He remembers a sixteen years old boy, and the war. Fear; a fear that he hasn’t felt in a long time and that he never wants to feel again. He remembers hope. When Draco was sixteen hope was a concept that he had never before associated with the basics of survival. A boy’s hopes are sometimes silly, vapid even, but oh so fundamental. It’s part of growing, to dream of trivial things. But war changes many things and childhood is often one of the first victims. Hope in war means living to see tomorrow. And when Draco remembers, he knows that even when the sun was shining and nature was at its best, there were no perfect days then.

Just a boy, who had held onto that wisp of fleeting hope, because it was all he had left. Fear, and hope.

Yes, it’s on days like this that Draco remembers the past.

They all have their moments.

For Harry it’s birthdays, Christmases, celebrations. Milestones. They remind him of the things he has lost and the people that are not there anymore. The people that won’t be getting older. That won’t be able to share presents under the tree or see their son walk for the first time. Harry has never had those days, during his childhood. Days to celebrate. It’s a bittersweet kind of feeling, because he is happy with how far his life has gotten, but he has lost so much in the war. So many. So he remembers them. Harry has always worried about others more than himself. He was raised to believe he didn’t matter but now his friends, his family, are working on it.

Weasley, Ron, doesn’t like to feel alone. In those evenings after Hermione had a long day at the Wizengamot, and all his family is in bed, it’s quiet. Ron does the dishes with the wireless on, and he remembers.

For her is more subtle. It’s after a difficult case in court, when she knows that despite the Wizarding World is going forward, every three steps there is still one back. Justice. Fairness. Equality. For Hermione the war meant winning against a prejudice that wanted to deprive her of her own essence. Hermione remembers, and she stands up straight and proud. She is one of the best witches of her age, after all.

George confessed it over a pint, a few years before. For him it’s sometimes getting dressed in the morning. For all he tries, George cannot remember which clothes are his. Short of underwear, they had always shared everything. George doesn’t need to remember, he is the image of what he has lost. He will mature the same way Fred would have done. A curse, that every day changes his appearance a little into what could have been and never will. Fred didn’t age past 20, but people have George to remember. So George sometimes wears what he thinks might be Fred’s trousers. At Christmas, his jumpers have no letter on them, there is no need.

Theo remembers through the mannerisms of people. Little actions that spark a memory, words that bring him back to happy times, when two young brothers were enough for each other.

Draco, in contrast, from the war has gained more than what he has lost. He was stripped bare of his beliefs and under the naked scrutiny of life he was reborn. Draco has grown a lot in those years. So, it’s during days like this that he thinks about the past and of what could have been. In days like today he remembers when things didn’t use to be quite so good.

And Draco stands up, because he has a family to enjoy and today truly is perfect.


End file.
